Here is an article from the Bucks County Courier Times dated 10/30/75:
A film a day for a buck a day â€" that’s the new policy at the New
World Theater, 19th & Market Sts., Philadelphia. This novel idea, designed by Cinema 5 Ltd. vice president and booker Sol Horowitz, calls for a daily change in the film schedule and a $1 at-all-times policy. The program list includes numerous impressive offerings ranging from the classic Hitchcock thriller “The 39 Steps” to the futuristic science fiction piece “Silent Running”.
In 1972. the original World Theater was torn down as part of the
city’s urban renewal program for the Bicentennial On Feb. 26, the
New World Theater opened and continued its former policy of booking foreign art films of cinematic masters such as Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Ingmar Bergman However, the management soon discovered that the former art crowd had deserted center city and moved to the suburbs, consequently, the New World has been losing money.
Cinema 5 also owns the Cinema 19 at 19th and Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia, and has used that theater as a house showing double bills for the last two years. The policy at the New World Theater is unique. Unlike most $1 houses that keep films for one week or more, the New World will only play a film for one day. That way, the theater can maintain a steady flow of classic films.
Here is an article about the demolition dated 8/8/93:
This week in Ithaca, the last pieces of the 2,000-seat Strand
Theatre will be torn down. While many mourn the demolition, it is unusual in Central New York theater history in only one way â€" that it took so long to happen.
The Strand in Ithaca opened in 1917. The Landmark, then the Loew’s State Theatre, opened in 1928, as did Utica’s movie palace known now as ihe Stanley Performing Arts Center. Ithaca, Utica, Syracuse and
other cities all had a half-dozen or more large theaters downtown.
Even small towns such as Cortland had theaters. Inside the Schine Theatre on North Main Street, “the artwork was spectacular.” said historian Shirley Heppell “It was like something you would see in New
York City. It was that quality.” The new movie theaters caused the death of some of the other theaters and opera houses. Oswego’s Richardson Theatre was torn down in the 1940s. The roof had collapsed, and the vacant building had been condemned, Prior said.
“By that time there were a number of other motion picture houses in Oswego, and they were newer buildings, more comfortable,” he said.
Places like the Strand in Ithaca and the Stanley in Utica had a lot more going for them then just a big movie screen and comfortable
seats. The Stanley, which seats almost 3,000. had a full-size stage and an orchestra pit for 45 musicians. The Strand and the Syracuse movie palaces also had orchestra pits and working stages.
Then, the rise of the suburbs, malls and multi-screen theaters
turned many of those downtown theaters into vacant buildings by
the'60s and 70s. Al that time, urban renewal in Utica razed most of that city’s theaters. “They are all mostly parking lots now,” said John Faust, theater manager of the Stanley Performing Arts Center.
The Stanley survived because its location was further uptown in the financial district. Its restoration, a $4 million job so far.
began after the local arts council bought the building in 1974.
Cortland’s Schine Theatre was torn down in 1972 to make room for a bank.
Most of Syracuse’s movie palaces survived into the 1970s, but
by that point they were mainly showing Kung Fu movies or exploitation
films. Their end came quietly, one at a time, as a parking lot or store took over the site.
Here is an article about the closing dated 1/1/67:
FINAL CURTAIN WILL FALL AT KEITH’S THEATER
“It marked an epoch in the realm of vaudeville distinguished for the excellence of the thespian art amid surroundings that surpassed the elegance of Babylonian settings.” So declared a theater critic on opening night at Keith’s Theater on Jan. 26, 1920. On that night of nights, Syracuse’s “great white way” became
even brighter from the illumination of 5,000 incandescent lights, “proclaiming a new era in theatrical, musical, social and business affairs” in a city already synonymous with entertainment. Local newspapers hailed the new theater as “a temple of amusement” and “a Syracuse institution.”
On opening night society turned out in all its glittering glory. Jewels and glamorous evening attire blended with the harmonious color scheme of the theater’s decor. On the bill were Belle Baker, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, Polly Walker and Miller & Mack, some of the most celebrated vaudeville acts of the day.
Such a show could be compared with television variety shows of today.
Full of years and honors, Keith’s is scheduled to succumb to the wrecker’s maul in April. It will dim its lights forever Thursday night. Down will come the structure, built at a cost of more than two million dollars, with its Italian marble columns and floors. The city is negotiating purchase of the building but
no price has been announced. It is expected, however, the price will be upwards of $700,000.
“The era of the 3,000 seat theater is drawing to a close,” Dave Levin, manager of Keith’s said. “Such palaces are no longer practical.” Walking through the theater, one cannot help but marvel at the magnificent Czechoslavakian crystal chandeliers and the solid marble walls and pillars , which marked those bygone days of elegance. As early as 1910, the Keith’s syndicate had been eager to acquire this property but hadn’t been able to do so. After smoothing out details, however, only one parcel remained. On the south end was a roadway used by the Clark Music Co. for shipping and receiving. The syndicate agreed to build a tunnel to the rear of the Clark building.
The new theater was designed by T. W. Lamb, a noted architect of the day. But the architect’s dream must
have been the contractor’s nightmare. The solid marble columns, about 12 feet high, hold up beams hidden behind the “gingerbread” ornamentation. “This theater was built in the days when labor and materials were cheap,“ Levin commented. Cheap or costly, the theater buffs are shedding tears and hate to see it go.
The Planning and Zoning Commission decided Thursday to recommend that the town acquire the Enfield Cinema with redevelopment funds so that the “adult-fare” movie theater can be torn down to provide much-needed parking in the Thompsonville renewal area. Angry commission members also asked to meet June 2 with the town’s Redevelopment Agency, saying they were tired of the agency’s eleventh-hour pleas for hasty approval of urban-renewal project plans.
The PZC was also upset st apparent inequities in the redevelopment
agency’s acquisition of property within the project area. Town Planner Paul Fox said the agency could still use Community
Development Act funds intended for buying land in the Pleasant-
Whitworth renewal project to buy the Enfield Cinema. The theater, whose skin flicks attract dozens of patrons daily, is the major block to providing adequate parking, Fox said.
Despite the ERA’s earlier assurances that all renewal area tenants
would have ample parking, officials acknowledged last month that it
has provided no parking facilities for the theater and its customers.
Fox told commissioners it is a “physical impossibility” for the ERA
to provide adequate parking within the renewal area.
Here are excerpts from an article in the 10/10/70 edition of the Bucks County Courier Times:
NOSTALGIA FILLS THIS OLD MOVIE HOUSE
It’s not that things in Newtown don’t change. They just change at a slower pace than other places. Take Newtown Hall Theater for instance. Three generations of Newtowners have watched movies at the old building and it’s hardly changed in all those years. Of course, there are some changes. The piano is gone. There’s a bigger screen and the two outdoor toilets have been replaced by indoor plumbing.
The audiences have changed over the years, too. Dave Fulton, who has worked at the theater for the past 28 years, can remember when on a Saturday night people “dressed to kill.” Now, some of the patrons don’t even wear shoes, Fulton relates. Also the price is up to $1.25 for adults and 60 cents for children. But, mostly everything is the same at the Newtown Hall Theater.
The popcorn machine that went into the small lobby in 1945 is still there and the price is still 10 cents a bag. It’s one of those machines where you hold the bag under a spout while the popcorn spills out. It takes an expert hand to make sure all the popcorn
goes into the bag.
There are still the same seats which were purchased in the late 1930s. There still is no air-conditioning so if it gets real hot the front doors are opened. But, there is heating in the winter. An American flag stands at the front of the theater and a faded carpet, worn thread-bare runs up the aisle. The walls are in dire need of paint. But, the Newtown Hall Theater has a certain feeling of “soul” that the giant new movie theaters will never have.
You just step into the theater and it hits you â€" a feeling of nostalgia. Memories of Saturday matinees with Superman, Lash LaRue and Tarzan, fill every corner of the Newtown Hall Theater. Just standing in the empty theater, which seats 400, you can almost taste the popcorn, Tootsie Rolls, Good and Plenty, Black Crows and Hershey Bars which were as much a part of going to the movies as the movie itself.
There was a time when every town and every city neighborhood had theaters just like Newtown’s. Now they are all gone. Their place has been taken by the drive-in and the chains of large modern theaters which are surrounded by even larger parking lots.
In the old days the movies were always popular and frequently the 300 downstairs seats and the 100 balcony seats were filled and people were turned away from the box office. Now, Frank Fabian sometimes drives up State St. on a Saturday night when every store is closed and there is not a soul in sight. But, things do change in Newtown. Now there are nights when only seven or eight people come to the movies. The Newtown Exhibitors pulled out in the mid 1950s and then the Community Council took over.
Sometimes there is a pretty big crowd. It depends on the picture and on the night. Fridays are pretty good. But, it is almost never necessary to open the balcony. The crowds aren’t that large. The theater usually gets films that have already shown everyplace else or that are not in big demand.
David Fulton runs the place himself. Except for a ticket seller, Fulton does everything including mowing the grass in the rear yard. Fulton believes the yard was once a cemetery for paupers. He shows pictures on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and there is still a Saturday matinee for the kids.
One gets the feeling that the Newtown Hall Theater is now on its last legs. It is badly in need of paint and repair. Financially the theater is just about covering expenses. There may come a day when the Community Council no longer wants to operate the theater and
the trustees will have nothing else to bring in any income. Perhaps the building will be demolished.
It would be a shame. The Newtown Hall Theater is a vanishing piece of Americana that deserves to be preserved. Some think it would make an excellent theater for a live theatrical group or if the revival of interest in old-time cinema continues to grow it would make a great show case for silent films. If you sit quietly in the theater and use your imagination, you can almost hear the ricky-ticky piano playing while Rudolph Valentino rides a white horse across the desert sands.
I’m not too great on Wisconsin geography, but the 3/7/71 edition of the Appleton Post Crescent advertised a number of theaters owned by the Marcus chain. Among them were the Neenah, Viking, Cinema 1 and Appleton. There was also this story concerning a theater in Clintonville:
Clintonville’s Only Theater Closes
Shopping Center Replaces It
“Closed for Redevelopment” is the sign posted in the window of the
ticket booth of the Times Theater this week. The last movie was shown Sunday night. Closing of the Times leaves Clintonville without a theater.
The Times Theater opened February 6, 1937, in a building rebuilt for
that purpose and owned by the late Dr. W.H. Finney. Later, after Dr. Finney’s death in 1943. the theater building was bought from his estate by his widow and her brother, the late Dr. E. W. Luebke.
During their ownership it was rented to Ben Marcus, Milwaukee,
who continued its operation.
In 1965, the building was sold to Norman Erickson, the present owner. He had it rented to Otto Settele, Seymour, an independent
operator, who also has the theater at Dodgeville. Settele said that 30,000 people a year attended the theater here. At one time Clintonville had two theaters, with the first one being the Grand, which was also owned by Dr. Finney, and which opened in the fall of 1914 in a building erected for that purpose. This theater was remodeled in 1929. After being closed for several years, the building
was purchased in 1962 by the late Warren Mitchell and housed Mitchell’s Trading Post. The business is still maintained today.
The Times Theater had to stop operation to make room for a new shopping center project.
Here is an article from the Monrovia News-Post dated 3/1/78:
Three Monrovia properties Tuesday were deemed public nuisances and
ordered demolished or rehabilitated by the Monrovia City Council.
To be demolished are the Crest Theater building, 205 E. Foothill
Blvd., and the dwellings at 428 E. Walnut Ave. and 421 E. Royal Oaks
Drive.
Constructed in the early 1920s, the Crest Theater building was ordered demolished because of numerous violations of the National Electric Code and the Uniform Building and Fire Code. Violations at the site were found in the form of illegally altered wiring,
broken and missing electrical fixtures, graffiti on the outside of the building, combustible wastes strewn throughout the inside of the building and improperly supported fire hose water lines.
The owner of the Foothill Boulevard property, S.M. Lazarus, asked the city to demolish the Crest Theater rather than allow it to be
rehabilitated or repaired. At the Tuesday meeting, the council complied with Lazarus' wishes and placed a $30,000 lien against the property to pay for demolition.
In 1932, the Fitchburg offered vaudeville shows as well as films, according to the Fitchburg Sentinel. Five acts were presented each Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The advertisement references “RKO Vaudeville” but I don’t know what the actual connection was between the studio and the vaudeville acts. Other theaters in the area were the Strand, Universal and Cumings.
Here are excerpts from an article in the Nebraska State Journal, dated 3/26/39:
Robert Boller Is Theater Architect
Well Known Planner Was Selected to Give Lincoln The Nebraska
No one entering the Nebraska theater Wednesday night, March 29, will see anything to remind them that the house was once the Orpheum.
Two scenes of the theater are shown in the photos above, the much-mirrored foyer with reflecting glass on sides and ceiling, and the main floor seating arrangement. Consultation of leading architects and color experts in theater building make the Nebraska the most modern theater in Lincoln, and newest dedication to audience comfort, entertainment, and homelike surroundings.
Great care has been taken to make the outer lobby and foyer wide and spacious, and at the same time genuinely inviting and attractive, so that the guest or patron who enters the theater will be struck with the unusual idea which Boller carried out. The front of the theater has been completely torn away, and new pilasters, or columns, extend
to the ceiling of the auditorium. New box-office and new entrances
also make a great difference, together with a new wide stairway to the mezzanine floor and balcony. Lounges, stairways, drinking
fountains, furniture and all have been placed to make the Nebraska
truly a warm, distinctive theater.
The marquee, which has five sides, faces both 12th and P streets. The entire sign is vividly lighted with high intensity neon tubing, and each side will carry a three channel attraction display, made of white glass with metal letters.
The building is being used as an antiques shopping center, with the espresso store in the forefront, according to this webpage: http://tinyurl.com/ydgt3q
On 3/21/62, the feature at the Tiffin was “Question 7”, a film about East Germany and the Berlin Wall. The co-feature was Walt Disney’s “The Horse with the Flying Tail”. I’m not sure if the art film crowd sat with the kids through both features, or vice versa, but it was an interesting combination.
The address for the theater was given as 4059 W. North. The phone number was AL 2-7000.
I guess that didn’t come out right. I was suggesting the library as a safe haven, not one prone to tool-yanking, as one contributor so eloquently stated above.
Click on the oblong building in the middle of 2nd Street for a photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yheojd
Here is an article with some background:
http://tinyurl.com/yhhutq
Here is an article from the Bucks County Courier Times dated 10/30/75:
A film a day for a buck a day â€" that’s the new policy at the New
World Theater, 19th & Market Sts., Philadelphia. This novel idea, designed by Cinema 5 Ltd. vice president and booker Sol Horowitz, calls for a daily change in the film schedule and a $1 at-all-times policy. The program list includes numerous impressive offerings ranging from the classic Hitchcock thriller “The 39 Steps” to the futuristic science fiction piece “Silent Running”.
In 1972. the original World Theater was torn down as part of the
city’s urban renewal program for the Bicentennial On Feb. 26, the
New World Theater opened and continued its former policy of booking foreign art films of cinematic masters such as Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Ingmar Bergman However, the management soon discovered that the former art crowd had deserted center city and moved to the suburbs, consequently, the New World has been losing money.
Cinema 5 also owns the Cinema 19 at 19th and Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia, and has used that theater as a house showing double bills for the last two years. The policy at the New World Theater is unique. Unlike most $1 houses that keep films for one week or more, the New World will only play a film for one day. That way, the theater can maintain a steady flow of classic films.
Here is an article about the demolition dated 8/8/93:
This week in Ithaca, the last pieces of the 2,000-seat Strand
Theatre will be torn down. While many mourn the demolition, it is unusual in Central New York theater history in only one way â€" that it took so long to happen.
The Strand in Ithaca opened in 1917. The Landmark, then the Loew’s State Theatre, opened in 1928, as did Utica’s movie palace known now as ihe Stanley Performing Arts Center. Ithaca, Utica, Syracuse and
other cities all had a half-dozen or more large theaters downtown.
Even small towns such as Cortland had theaters. Inside the Schine Theatre on North Main Street, “the artwork was spectacular.” said historian Shirley Heppell “It was like something you would see in New
York City. It was that quality.” The new movie theaters caused the death of some of the other theaters and opera houses. Oswego’s Richardson Theatre was torn down in the 1940s. The roof had collapsed, and the vacant building had been condemned, Prior said.
“By that time there were a number of other motion picture houses in Oswego, and they were newer buildings, more comfortable,” he said.
Places like the Strand in Ithaca and the Stanley in Utica had a lot more going for them then just a big movie screen and comfortable
seats. The Stanley, which seats almost 3,000. had a full-size stage and an orchestra pit for 45 musicians. The Strand and the Syracuse movie palaces also had orchestra pits and working stages.
Then, the rise of the suburbs, malls and multi-screen theaters
turned many of those downtown theaters into vacant buildings by
the'60s and 70s. Al that time, urban renewal in Utica razed most of that city’s theaters. “They are all mostly parking lots now,” said John Faust, theater manager of the Stanley Performing Arts Center.
The Stanley survived because its location was further uptown in the financial district. Its restoration, a $4 million job so far.
began after the local arts council bought the building in 1974.
Cortland’s Schine Theatre was torn down in 1972 to make room for a bank.
Most of Syracuse’s movie palaces survived into the 1970s, but
by that point they were mainly showing Kung Fu movies or exploitation
films. Their end came quietly, one at a time, as a parking lot or store took over the site.
Here is an article about the closing dated 1/1/67:
FINAL CURTAIN WILL FALL AT KEITH’S THEATER
“It marked an epoch in the realm of vaudeville distinguished for the excellence of the thespian art amid surroundings that surpassed the elegance of Babylonian settings.” So declared a theater critic on opening night at Keith’s Theater on Jan. 26, 1920. On that night of nights, Syracuse’s “great white way” became
even brighter from the illumination of 5,000 incandescent lights, “proclaiming a new era in theatrical, musical, social and business affairs” in a city already synonymous with entertainment. Local newspapers hailed the new theater as “a temple of amusement” and “a Syracuse institution.”
On opening night society turned out in all its glittering glory. Jewels and glamorous evening attire blended with the harmonious color scheme of the theater’s decor. On the bill were Belle Baker, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, Polly Walker and Miller & Mack, some of the most celebrated vaudeville acts of the day.
Such a show could be compared with television variety shows of today.
Full of years and honors, Keith’s is scheduled to succumb to the wrecker’s maul in April. It will dim its lights forever Thursday night. Down will come the structure, built at a cost of more than two million dollars, with its Italian marble columns and floors. The city is negotiating purchase of the building but
no price has been announced. It is expected, however, the price will be upwards of $700,000.
“The era of the 3,000 seat theater is drawing to a close,” Dave Levin, manager of Keith’s said. “Such palaces are no longer practical.” Walking through the theater, one cannot help but marvel at the magnificent Czechoslavakian crystal chandeliers and the solid marble walls and pillars , which marked those bygone days of elegance. As early as 1910, the Keith’s syndicate had been eager to acquire this property but hadn’t been able to do so. After smoothing out details, however, only one parcel remained. On the south end was a roadway used by the Clark Music Co. for shipping and receiving. The syndicate agreed to build a tunnel to the rear of the Clark building.
The new theater was designed by T. W. Lamb, a noted architect of the day. But the architect’s dream must
have been the contractor’s nightmare. The solid marble columns, about 12 feet high, hold up beams hidden behind the “gingerbread” ornamentation. “This theater was built in the days when labor and materials were cheap,“ Levin commented. Cheap or costly, the theater buffs are shedding tears and hate to see it go.
This appears to be a predecessor:
5/6/77
Town to Buy Porn Theater?
The Planning and Zoning Commission decided Thursday to recommend that the town acquire the Enfield Cinema with redevelopment funds so that the “adult-fare” movie theater can be torn down to provide much-needed parking in the Thompsonville renewal area. Angry commission members also asked to meet June 2 with the town’s Redevelopment Agency, saying they were tired of the agency’s eleventh-hour pleas for hasty approval of urban-renewal project plans.
The PZC was also upset st apparent inequities in the redevelopment
agency’s acquisition of property within the project area. Town Planner Paul Fox said the agency could still use Community
Development Act funds intended for buying land in the Pleasant-
Whitworth renewal project to buy the Enfield Cinema. The theater, whose skin flicks attract dozens of patrons daily, is the major block to providing adequate parking, Fox said.
Despite the ERA’s earlier assurances that all renewal area tenants
would have ample parking, officials acknowledged last month that it
has provided no parking facilities for the theater and its customers.
Fox told commissioners it is a “physical impossibility” for the ERA
to provide adequate parking within the renewal area.
Here are excerpts from an article in the 10/10/70 edition of the Bucks County Courier Times:
NOSTALGIA FILLS THIS OLD MOVIE HOUSE
It’s not that things in Newtown don’t change. They just change at a slower pace than other places. Take Newtown Hall Theater for instance. Three generations of Newtowners have watched movies at the old building and it’s hardly changed in all those years. Of course, there are some changes. The piano is gone. There’s a bigger screen and the two outdoor toilets have been replaced by indoor plumbing.
The audiences have changed over the years, too. Dave Fulton, who has worked at the theater for the past 28 years, can remember when on a Saturday night people “dressed to kill.” Now, some of the patrons don’t even wear shoes, Fulton relates. Also the price is up to $1.25 for adults and 60 cents for children. But, mostly everything is the same at the Newtown Hall Theater.
The popcorn machine that went into the small lobby in 1945 is still there and the price is still 10 cents a bag. It’s one of those machines where you hold the bag under a spout while the popcorn spills out. It takes an expert hand to make sure all the popcorn
goes into the bag.
There are still the same seats which were purchased in the late 1930s. There still is no air-conditioning so if it gets real hot the front doors are opened. But, there is heating in the winter. An American flag stands at the front of the theater and a faded carpet, worn thread-bare runs up the aisle. The walls are in dire need of paint. But, the Newtown Hall Theater has a certain feeling of “soul” that the giant new movie theaters will never have.
You just step into the theater and it hits you â€" a feeling of nostalgia. Memories of Saturday matinees with Superman, Lash LaRue and Tarzan, fill every corner of the Newtown Hall Theater. Just standing in the empty theater, which seats 400, you can almost taste the popcorn, Tootsie Rolls, Good and Plenty, Black Crows and Hershey Bars which were as much a part of going to the movies as the movie itself.
There was a time when every town and every city neighborhood had theaters just like Newtown’s. Now they are all gone. Their place has been taken by the drive-in and the chains of large modern theaters which are surrounded by even larger parking lots.
In the old days the movies were always popular and frequently the 300 downstairs seats and the 100 balcony seats were filled and people were turned away from the box office. Now, Frank Fabian sometimes drives up State St. on a Saturday night when every store is closed and there is not a soul in sight. But, things do change in Newtown. Now there are nights when only seven or eight people come to the movies. The Newtown Exhibitors pulled out in the mid 1950s and then the Community Council took over.
Sometimes there is a pretty big crowd. It depends on the picture and on the night. Fridays are pretty good. But, it is almost never necessary to open the balcony. The crowds aren’t that large. The theater usually gets films that have already shown everyplace else or that are not in big demand.
David Fulton runs the place himself. Except for a ticket seller, Fulton does everything including mowing the grass in the rear yard. Fulton believes the yard was once a cemetery for paupers. He shows pictures on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and there is still a Saturday matinee for the kids.
One gets the feeling that the Newtown Hall Theater is now on its last legs. It is badly in need of paint and repair. Financially the theater is just about covering expenses. There may come a day when the Community Council no longer wants to operate the theater and
the trustees will have nothing else to bring in any income. Perhaps the building will be demolished.
It would be a shame. The Newtown Hall Theater is a vanishing piece of Americana that deserves to be preserved. Some think it would make an excellent theater for a live theatrical group or if the revival of interest in old-time cinema continues to grow it would make a great show case for silent films. If you sit quietly in the theater and use your imagination, you can almost hear the ricky-ticky piano playing while Rudolph Valentino rides a white horse across the desert sands.
I’m not too great on Wisconsin geography, but the 3/7/71 edition of the Appleton Post Crescent advertised a number of theaters owned by the Marcus chain. Among them were the Neenah, Viking, Cinema 1 and Appleton. There was also this story concerning a theater in Clintonville:
Clintonville’s Only Theater Closes
Shopping Center Replaces It
“Closed for Redevelopment” is the sign posted in the window of the
ticket booth of the Times Theater this week. The last movie was shown Sunday night. Closing of the Times leaves Clintonville without a theater.
The Times Theater opened February 6, 1937, in a building rebuilt for
that purpose and owned by the late Dr. W.H. Finney. Later, after Dr. Finney’s death in 1943. the theater building was bought from his estate by his widow and her brother, the late Dr. E. W. Luebke.
During their ownership it was rented to Ben Marcus, Milwaukee,
who continued its operation.
In 1965, the building was sold to Norman Erickson, the present owner. He had it rented to Otto Settele, Seymour, an independent
operator, who also has the theater at Dodgeville. Settele said that 30,000 people a year attended the theater here. At one time Clintonville had two theaters, with the first one being the Grand, which was also owned by Dr. Finney, and which opened in the fall of 1914 in a building erected for that purpose. This theater was remodeled in 1929. After being closed for several years, the building
was purchased in 1962 by the late Warren Mitchell and housed Mitchell’s Trading Post. The business is still maintained today.
The Times Theater had to stop operation to make room for a new shopping center project.
Here is an article from the Monrovia News-Post dated 3/1/78:
Three Monrovia properties Tuesday were deemed public nuisances and
ordered demolished or rehabilitated by the Monrovia City Council.
To be demolished are the Crest Theater building, 205 E. Foothill
Blvd., and the dwellings at 428 E. Walnut Ave. and 421 E. Royal Oaks
Drive.
Constructed in the early 1920s, the Crest Theater building was ordered demolished because of numerous violations of the National Electric Code and the Uniform Building and Fire Code. Violations at the site were found in the form of illegally altered wiring,
broken and missing electrical fixtures, graffiti on the outside of the building, combustible wastes strewn throughout the inside of the building and improperly supported fire hose water lines.
The owner of the Foothill Boulevard property, S.M. Lazarus, asked the city to demolish the Crest Theater rather than allow it to be
rehabilitated or repaired. At the Tuesday meeting, the council complied with Lazarus' wishes and placed a $30,000 lien against the property to pay for demolition.
In 1932, the Fitchburg offered vaudeville shows as well as films, according to the Fitchburg Sentinel. Five acts were presented each Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The advertisement references “RKO Vaudeville” but I don’t know what the actual connection was between the studio and the vaudeville acts. Other theaters in the area were the Strand, Universal and Cumings.
Here are excerpts from an article in the Nebraska State Journal, dated 3/26/39:
Robert Boller Is Theater Architect
Well Known Planner Was Selected to Give Lincoln The Nebraska
No one entering the Nebraska theater Wednesday night, March 29, will see anything to remind them that the house was once the Orpheum.
Two scenes of the theater are shown in the photos above, the much-mirrored foyer with reflecting glass on sides and ceiling, and the main floor seating arrangement. Consultation of leading architects and color experts in theater building make the Nebraska the most modern theater in Lincoln, and newest dedication to audience comfort, entertainment, and homelike surroundings.
Great care has been taken to make the outer lobby and foyer wide and spacious, and at the same time genuinely inviting and attractive, so that the guest or patron who enters the theater will be struck with the unusual idea which Boller carried out. The front of the theater has been completely torn away, and new pilasters, or columns, extend
to the ceiling of the auditorium. New box-office and new entrances
also make a great difference, together with a new wide stairway to the mezzanine floor and balcony. Lounges, stairways, drinking
fountains, furniture and all have been placed to make the Nebraska
truly a warm, distinctive theater.
The marquee, which has five sides, faces both 12th and P streets. The entire sign is vividly lighted with high intensity neon tubing, and each side will carry a three channel attraction display, made of white glass with metal letters.
End of the road, 1997:
http://tinyurl.com/y7wksw
Here is another photo from 1958:
http://tinyurl.com/y6939s
Here is a 1941 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y2ane6
Here is some information about the restoration in the 1980s:
http://tinyurl.com/y7luaj
Here is some additional background on this theater:
http://tinyurl.com/y5bap4
Google search provides current info, as far as I know:
Antiques Off Broadway
103 Avenue C
Cloquet, MN 55720
(218) 879-5284
Circa 1973:
http://tinyurl.com/y9wkl5
These are the photos that northstar was referring to:
http://tinyurl.com/ya9lkr
http://tinyurl.com/yj4ee4
Here is a repost of Sean’s 1981 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ygjz4u
1952:
http://tinyurl.com/yhuaff
1953:
http://tinyurl.com/yzj6ko
The building is being used as an antiques shopping center, with the espresso store in the forefront, according to this webpage:
http://tinyurl.com/ydgt3q
I only know what I read in the papers. Obviously 40 year old back issues may have some inaccuracies, so you are in all probability correct.
An ad in the 3/21/62 edition of the Austin News gives the address as 39 S. LaGrange Road.
On 3/21/62, the feature at the Tiffin was “Question 7”, a film about East Germany and the Berlin Wall. The co-feature was Walt Disney’s “The Horse with the Flying Tail”. I’m not sure if the art film crowd sat with the kids through both features, or vice versa, but it was an interesting combination.
The address for the theater was given as 4059 W. North. The phone number was AL 2-7000.
I guess that didn’t come out right. I was suggesting the library as a safe haven, not one prone to tool-yanking, as one contributor so eloquently stated above.